How does selling a web design service work?

[hosfordryan]

Hi, I was wondering about starting to do a little web design while i'm in high school to earn a little extra money. I am just confused about a few things when it comes to selling a web design service. What do you give to the client at the end? A finished website complete with a domain, web host, etc.? Or just the html/css files? Would anyone take someone who is in high school seriously? Also, could you get away with just knowing html and css? Or is javascript or something similar necessary? I'm sure i could learn javascript for web design, as I already know how to program, but i would rather just stick to html and css.
If anyone could point me to a post somewhere or just reply in the comments answering these questions or with some advice in general, that would be fantastic. Thank you very much.

 

[Phreaddee]

learn your craft.

then.

sell yourself.

but don't sell yourself before you've learnt your craft.

 

[chrishirst]

A finished website complete with a domain, web host, etc.? Or just the html/css files?

No and no.

A design is the 'look and feel'. A 'picture' is sufficient for the design.

HTML, CSS, javascript etc. are coding.

Server side code and database work is developing.

Server management is the role of the "techies"

Managing the hosting, development and the design comes under the title of "webmaster" and RARELY do all those different skills combine in a single person.

Truly GOOD designers find coding and development difficult. it's the switch from creative to logical that fails

Truly GOOD developers have their [if any] creative skills dulled by knowing what HTML/CSS cannot do.

Server managers will naturally limit what they do in coding and development because of "security" concerns.

If you can design, ... Then be the best designer you can possibly be ( http://www.webdesignforum.com/20221-br-not-working.html ) and leave coding to the less fortunate with little or no creative skills, and I count myself in this less fortunate group.

If you can code, ... Team up with a good designer so you can do each other justice.

If you are a good server tech, ... Get yourself a half decent VM and team up with those ^^ two.

If everybody does what they are best at, everybody wins.

 

[megfarrington]

Hi,

I think that there are a lot of people who would take a high schooler seriously if you make an effort to be professional and upfront about your skills and abilities. Most clients would probably want you to help them launch the website completely, so you would need them to purchase the domain name and hosting account and then grant you access as an administrator.

I'm a freelance web designer and I don't use javascript at all. I use WordPress to create most of my sites and do some CSS customizations. If you're looking for a step-by-step guide to how to start doing this kind of work, I would check out the free 4-week online course at http://jonathanwold.com/. It was really helpful for me when I started doing freelance work.

My freelance site is megfarrington . com

Best of luck!

 

[marjanalawi]

Better to work on ready made templates first to be proficient. You will have idea how responsive HTML and CSS works, then you can start selling first in your own network.